The aim of this study is to develop a process to produce high-performance cement-based composites reinforced with flax nonwoven fabrics, analyzing the influence of the fabric structure-thickness and entanglement-on mechanical behavior under flexural and tensile loadings. For this purpose, composite with flax nonwoven fabrics with different thicknesses were first prepared and their cement infilt...

Background Flax is a plant that is widely cultivated and has multiple uses. The seed has been increasingly used in food, and the fibers are used in textiles. Oils have also been extracted from the seed for use as a laxative and in industrial preparations. Allergic reactions to flax seed ingestion as well as linseed oil (flaxseed oil) ingestion have been described in the literature in adults (1-...

BACKGROUND Phytoestrogens are naturally occurring, plant-derived, nonsteroidal phytochemicals with anticarcinogenic potential. The aim of this study was to isolate phytoestrogens from the flax root of Linum usitatissimum and to test their effect on cellular metabolism in the human mammalian carcinoma cell line MCF-7 using the Bionas 2500 analysis system. MATERIALS AND METHODS Metabolically re...

An elementary plant fiber could be assimilated to a laminate, mainly constituted of the secondary wall S2 layer, made of a few non-crystalline polysaccharides reinforced by cellulose fibrils organized in a helix, with a microfibrillar angle (MFA) around 10 o relative to the longitudinal fiber axis. This paper investigates the relationships between the MFA, the mechanical properties and the bioc...

Nowadays most plant textiles used for clothing and household are made of cotton and viscose. Before the 19th century however, plant textiles were mainly made from locally available raw materials, in Scandinavia these were: nettle, hemp and flax. It is generally believed that in Viking and early Middle Ages Scandinavia hemp was used only for coarse textiles (i.e. rope and sailcloth). Here we pre...

Agrobacterium-mediated plant transformation via floral-dip is a widely used technique in the field of plant transformation and has been reported to be successful for many plant species. However, flax (Linum usitatissimum) transformation by floral-dip has not been reported. The goal of this protocol is to establish that Agrobacterium and the floral-dip method can be used to generate transgenic f...

Ovariectomized ewes (n=22; 68.76+/-2.34 kg initial body weight; 2.9+/-0.1 initial body condition score) were individually fed one of three diets: (1) control (phytoestrogen-free; n=7), (2) flax containing diet (n=8), or (3) linseed meal (LSM) containing diet (n=7) to investigate the rate of progesterone (P4) clearance. On day 20 of feeding (day 0=initiation of treatment), a P4 releasing device ...

An enzyme which catalyzes the transfer of glucose from UDP-glucose to a-hydroxyisobutyronitrile (acetone cyanohydrin) has been isolated from flax seedlings (Zinum usifafissimum L). The product of this reaction was shown to be identical with linamarin, one of the two cyanogenic glucosides produced by the flax plant. The partially purified UDP-glucose-ketone cyanohydrm /3-glucosyltransferase exhi...

An enzyme which catalyzes the transfer of glucose from UDP-glucose to a-hydroxyisobutyronitrile (acetone cyanohydrin) has been isolated from flax seedlings (Zinum usifafissimum L). The product of this reaction was shown to be identical with linamarin, one of the two cyanogenic glucosides produced by the flax plant. The partially purified UDP-glucose-ketone cyanohydrm /3-glucosyltransferase exhi...